musard

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle English musard, from Middle French musard, from muser (“to loiter, trifle”). See muse (intransitive verb).

Noun

musard (plural musards)

1. (literary) A dreamer; an absent-minded person.
   • 1796, An Appeal to impartial posterity, An Appeal to impartial posterity, page 217:

     How do the sciences go on in the midst of our political convulsions, and our financial distress? and the men of leaning, and the great talkers, and the collections, and the courses of lectures, and La Blancherie, and the museums, and the musards ( loungers?)

   • 1881, Edward St. John-Brenon, The Tribune Reflects: And Other Poems, page 48:

     For while alluring fortune beckons me
     Along, I'll follow it, ev'n to the verge
     Of death—ay, hell, if but a musard hope
     Should taste success, and my ambition dower
     Me with a specious immortality.

   • 1883, Charles D. Morley, Aglaia Unveiled: a Poetical Romaunt; and Miscellaneous Verses, page 6:

     Earth's sons arise, inhabit, and return, Like fleeting forms before a musard's eyes; Yet, as some Phœnix out a funeral urn, See! from their lives, new lives in youth arise.

   • 1944, Ernest Hall Templin, The Social Approach to Literature - Volume 28, page 407:

     He belittled his fellow citizens, as was his habit, by remarking that Monsieur Musard was a bagatelle to amuse all the other musards of Paris, who had no important use for their time.

Anagrams

• Rudmas, mudars, mudras, mudrās

French

Etymology

From muser.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

musard m (plural musards)

1. a dreamer, absent-minded person, one who is frequently lost in thought

Adjective

musard (feminine musarde, masculine plural musards, feminine plural musardes)

1. (dated) spending one's time musing, dreaming
2. spacey, characterized by a predisposition to lose focus

Further reading

• “musard”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• mosard, moserd, mossard, musarde

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French musard; equivalent to musen +‎ -ard.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmiu̯zard/, /ˈmuzard/

Noun

musard (plural musardes)

1. A fool; an absent-minded person.
   • c. 1360s (date written)​, Geffray Chaucer [i.e., Geoffrey Chaucer], “The Romaunt of the Rose”, in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London: […] Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], published 1542, →OCLC, folio clxv, recto, column 2, line 7562:

     There muſe muſarde al the daye / Thou wakeſt nyght and daye foꝛ thought

     Now think all day, fool, / you're awake thinking night and day […]

Descendants

• → English: musard

References

• “mū̆sard, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.